For Army and Navy, the 2001 Football Game Was About So Much More

Despite the passage of time, recollections can come rushing back in an instant when 9/11 arrives. The arrival of a landmark date, such as Friday’s 25th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., heightens the somber remembrance and deep contemplation at what has transpired since.

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At few places was the impact of 9/11-both in the moment and over the ensuing decades-felt more acutely than by two football teams from the 2001 season: the Army Black Knights and the Navy Midshipmen. Months before the pair staged one of the most remarkable games in their illustrious history, both sides were just like most of the country that fateful Tuesday morning, each trying to make sense of what they were seeing.

“You know at a place like West Point, it means so much more than it does at any other institution in the country because we’re there with the intent, with our mission, to develop leaders of character that are going to serve our nation and lead our nation into battle to defend our freedom,” says St. Bonaventure athletic director Bob Beretta, who spent three decades in Army’s athletic department and grew up in the Hudson Valley. “It was surreal. You knew you were in a space with 200 young men whose lives and futures just changed in a flash. We were no longer in a peacetime Army and no one was more in tune with what that would mean than the young men you were surrounded by.”

American Airlines Flight 11, whose path took it near West Point that day, and United Flight 175 both hit the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan during football and administrative staff meetings at the two academies.

Beretta recalls interrupting one to inform Army’s athletic director about the events everyone saw unfolding on the news and the potential impact to that week’s game. Once contingencies were discussed and the gatherings eventually dispersed, several staffers trekked to the top of Michie Stadium’s press box or nearby Fort Putnam elevated above the field, where they could see smoke from the smoldering ruins of the towers rising above the New York skyline fewer than 50 miles away.

For others, they didn’t need that image to understand the seriousness of what was happening.

“I saw the second plane live on the news station as they were filming,” former Army quarterback Chad Jenkins says. “Immediately thereafter, everybody’s putting the intel and the puzzle pieces together realizing that this was a deliberate attack.”

The Black Knights called a team meeting just after lunch. Top of mind for former head coach Todd Berry was briefing his players on what would happen the rest of the day and to relay as much information as he could find out, cognizant that at least one player had a parent working at the World Trade Center and several others who had family members at the Pentagon.

What stood out to him most, still to this day, was the questions from the cadets at the time. Freshmen and sophomores focused on what was going to happen to them during the rest of their time at the academy and if this would signal any changes; upperclassmen pointedly inquired what they could do to help or asked what they should be doing next.

“We didn’t know if we were going to play that weekend and we thought about canceling practice. I did talk to a few of my friends that were head coaches to see what their approach was going to be, but the academy is unique. So I decided to go ahead and have practice that day,” Berry says. “We had a mission. We were still playing that Saturday as far as we knew. And regardless of the trauma, that’s what those young people were supposed to be able to do. They’re supposed to be able to continue on with the mission. That was our mission, so we decided to go ahead and practice. It was actually a good practice, we were fairly focused.

“As I look back at that, I still believe it was the right call. Because even in combat later on in my military career, there could be a lot of chaos going around us and taking place on the battlefield with a lot of things out of our control. But at the end of the day, if you have a task and a purpose and a mission, you can focus on that,” Jenkins says. “That’s how you get things accomplished on a greater scale. That’s really kind of the warrior ethos of continuing to fight and continuing to prepare, on and off the field. That’s what we did that day.”

Before morning practices were common, Army was the only team in the country which formally practiced on 9/11. Navy was far more limited in what it could do, owing to its location near the nation’s capital and the moment itself.

“We did not practice for a couple of days. We were kind of on lockdown at Bancroft Hall,” says Ed Malinowski, one of the Midshipmen’s captains that season. “That Thursday or Friday when we went back to practice, I remember [coach Charlie Weatherbie] getting up on some scaffolding and on the microphone he said, ‘We’re getting ready for Boston College!’ So that meant we weren’t playing that game at Northwestern and were going to miss a whole game.”

Even with football at nearly every level hitting pause, formally canceling the game against the Wildcats only added to the anguish felt in Annapolis, Md., about the state of affairs on the field. Several scandals had previously led to the departures of a number of key members from the senior class, and Weatherbie was fired seven games into what would ultimately be an 0–10 season.

Between the lines, things were not much better at Army that year. The Black Knights were routed by UAB in their first game back after 9/11 and managed only a 3–8 mark on a season which was beset by injuries to the point where the backup quarterback was essentially a lacrosse player.

“When we first came back, it was rough, we didn’t play well,” says Beretta. “But what stands out, and this was true in every stadium, was the reception that our young men received. Incredible, standing ovations when we came on the field, carrying that flag, I have goose bumps just now thinking about those moments. It was powerful and it was more than just we’re going to pat these kids on the back because it was football. It was a respect for what those young men stood for.”

“It wasn’t like our record was on fire by any means, but we truly did become America’s team wherever we went home or away,” Jenkins confirms. “We got a standing ovation every place we ran out onto the field.”

Set in the background to the season was the global war on terror, with players on both sides well aware of what that would mean for them over the next few years on top of the thoughts they had for former players who were immediately thrust into the front lines. Air strikes launching Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan took place just hours after Navy’s one-score loss to Air Force in a Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy game in early October, while Army quickly had celebrations for its first win, a 28–14 victory at Michie over Houston, dampened at the same time.

“The Army-Navy game was a culmination of those ups and downs during the season and the young people having to fight through. At that point in time, it was pretty apparent that there were going to be boots on the ground so the academy changed dramatically, too … during that season it wasn’t just about going to school and being in football,” Berry says. “There were a lot of other things that were significantly more important at that time going into the game.”

While the annual Army-Navy game at the end of the regular season is typically one of the most watched games of the year, the 102nd edition became unique given the lead-up of the proceeding three months.

Playing before a then-record crowd of 69,708 at the old Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia that included numerous military and civilian dignitaries, nearly all involved at the time remember the contest less for the 26–17 final score than for everything surrounding the game-a cathartic chance to play football one last time in 2001 and a symbol of patriotism that reverberated far beyond the field.

“We obviously hadn’t won a game, Army wasn’t much better. But then you know, the stadium is sold out and it’s electric in there, it’s like the Super Bowl. I’m like, this is awesome,” Malinowski says. “I got to meet the president [George W. Bush] for the first time in the hallway going into the locker room. He’s walking in with Secret Service agents and some others following him, and I extend my hand to him. ‘Mr. President, pleasure to meet you, Ed Malinowski.’ He goes, ‘Ed! Where ya from?’ I say, ‘Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, sir.’

“He responds, ‘Pittsburgh! What a great town.’ It was so nice. I didn’t expect him to have such a highly personal reaction from somebody who is under such heavy stress at that point.”

On top of the president visiting each side, former Naval Academy graduate Sen. John McCain joined the Midshipmen pregame to deliver a passionate address about the moment for both the team and the country.

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Down the hall at nearly the same time, the Black Knights were fired up by the arrival of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who gave such a rousing monologue that many of the cadets left the locker room with a feeling of invincibility.

“General Schwarzkopf, man, his speech was so awesome. It’s what we need to hear, it was a battle cry: ‘Men, not only do you represent the Army football team and West Point and the corps of cadets, but you represent the United States Army. The United States Army does not lose battles and you’re going to war today, so go win!’ When we heard that, there was no other decision, the decision had already been made,” Jenkins recalls. “Regardless of what was transpiring on the field, we were going to find a way and that’s what we did.”

It took just over three minutes for the Black Knights to score that Saturday afternoon, with tailback Ardell Daniels taking a draw 60 yards for the game’s first touchdown. Jenkins, who was playing on an injured knee that forced him to miss time in the weeks leading up the game, found Brian Bruenton for a 42-yard pass a drive later to put Army up 13–0.

Navy managed to kick a field goal in the second quarter and keep things within two possessions at halftime, but Army’s Omari Thompson raced 96 yards for a kickoff return touchdown at the start of the third quarter to extend the lead.

“I was on the kickoff team, which was weird for a quarterback, but that’s a whole other story. What killed us was definitely the kickoff return to open the second half. I barely even saw the ball get by me-it was kind of on the other side of the field-and I was thinking how did this guy go to the house so fast?” Malinowski says. “Don’t think I don’t play that over in my head a million times every year. Every week, like every week, I’ll also think about what business did I have throwing that ball [for an interception] when the linebacker was setting deep instead of using my ability to run.”

Dwelling on the negative is something inherent to playing football, but the former team MVP shouldn’t beat himself up too much. Objectively, there were plenty of hallmarks of teams which combined for just two prior wins that season across the 60 minutes of action.

Malinowski was one of three players to throw a pass to varying degrees of effectiveness as the Navy offense mustered just 239 yards and featured two turnovers that helped blunt a late comeback attempt. For Army, Jenkins laughs when noting how quickly he tries to skip over the four picks he threw when catching replays of the game with his family.

Still, it wasn’t the actual football which reverberates a quarter century later, but the symbolism.

“All the senior linemen being able to come out and for us to get into victory formation and be able to take that knee was just special,” says Jenkins, who was awarded three Bronze Stars and later joined the FBI after serving several tours abroad. “Those bonds just don’t go away. It’s something you can’t articulate and you don’t even have the ability to comprehend in the moment, especially as a 20, 21-year-old kid.”

Berry notes he didn’t feel any added pressure to win the game and felt good about his group playing well given how focused they seemed coming in.

If there was anything surprising for him, it came once the final whistle was blown and the intense enthusiasm could finally be unleashed unrepented by those who did have a vested interest in the final outcome.

“I was an option quarterback in college, but the hardest I ever got hit was after that Army-Navy game and somebody tackled me from behind as I was going across to shake hands,” the coach says with a slight chuckle. “I was like, Who in the world is tackling me at this moment? It was Gen. Schwarzkopf. He put a form tackle on me that I will never forget.”

The head coach eventually recovered to shake interim counterpart Rick Lantz’s hand at midfield, but emotions quickly turned sentimental as the two sides sung their alma maters together. The scene is moving after every game in the series, but the tears flowed more freely in 2001 for those both inside and outside the stadium as they soaked in the scene.

“Every Army-Navy game is an incredible display of patriotism from the time you walk into the stadium until the time you leave. But that day it meant so much more than representing the Army and the Navy, it was a statement to the country that all is well and all will be well,” Beretta says. “We wanted to win that game and after we prevailed, the sheer joy in that locker room was nothing like I had ever experienced before or after. Those locker rooms after Army-Navy victories are always next-level celebrations, but that day was different.”

“With all of the things that were going on, the distractions and how the academy changed, you knew what lay ahead so I was just elated for our players to be able to finish that way. Especially our seniors,” Berry says. “I get a little choked up now just thinking about a special group of players during a unique season, it was nice to see it culminate in that way for them. I felt for the Navy players, too, because I know they went through similar things during the course of the season. I know how devastating the Army-Navy losses are for either team, but especially in that season.”

That hit home several years later in 2004, as Navy receiver J.P. Blecksmith, who caught a pass for 13 yards in the 2001 game, was killed in Iraq while on patrol as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. Brendan Looney became a Navy SEAL after his time on the team and died in 2010 when his helicopter crashed in Afghanistan.

Their memories are cherished across both sides of the Army-Navy divide that often goes away after the football game concludes.

“The end of that game is the beginning of a relationship,” Malinowski says, appropriately on his way to a Navy alumni event last week to catch up with friends and old teammates. “That’s the cool thing about service academy football.”

“That’s the brotherhood. Even though for one day, we can’t stand each other, that brotherhood transpires regardless,” Jenkins says. “That’s what makes it such a unique rivalry game.”

One in particular, 25 years later, which remains unforgettable by those who were a part of it.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as For Army and Navy, the 2001 Football Game Was About So Much More.

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